Vittore Carpaccio:The Meditation on the Passion (1490)

(Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA)

A painting by the Italian artist Vittore Carpaccio (1465-1525/26). This symbolical piece refers to the resurrection. Sitting in the middle on a broken throne (inscribed in pseudo-Hebrew) is dead Christ (although he appears to be sleeping - a reference to the resurrection). Above the broken throne is a bird (symbol of the soul) which flies upwards. On the left of Christ is Job, a prophet from the Old Testament, while on the right site saint Jerome of Stridon. Saint Jerome wrote a commentary on the book of Job in which he states that Job "prophesies the resurrection of men’s bodies at once with clearness and with more caution than anyone has yet shown". Job himself stated that "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth"(Job 19:25), the text "My Redeemer lives 19" is also written under Job. The landscape, the animals and the skull and bones all refer to the themes of death and life.